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Arizona Fall League shares several All-Star Game ties

Superstars Mike Trout and Bryce Harper play catch and discuss participating in the Arizona Fall League in 2011

By Spencer Fordin
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MLB.com |

It's another star-filled season for the Arizona Fall League.

The AFL, which has long been a proving ground for baseball's best prospects, will see 36 players and umpires with ties to the league in Tuesday night's All-Star Game at Target Field. With that impressive haul, the AFL can now boast 212 players with All-Star ties to the league since its inception in 1992.

Four former Arizona Fall League umpires -- Scott Barry, Vic Carapazza, Jeff Nelson and Todd Tichenor -- will be working the All-Star Game on Tuesday night. Carapazza will be working in right field and Tichenor will be in left field, while Barry works third base and Nelson calls plays at first base.

But the lion's share of AFL alumni will be on the field in a playing capacity. Fifteen former Arizona Fall League players were named to the American League team, and 21 more players are on the National League's team. Fourteen of the players are in the All-Star Game for the very first time.

Dellin Betances, a first-time All-Star who played for the Scottsdale Scorpions in 2012, is the most recent AFL alumni to make it to the Midsummer Classic. There are four players -- Trout, Derek Norris, Aroldis Champan and Tyson Ross -- who played in the Arizona Fall League as recently as 2011.

Jeter (1994) is the only one of the All-Stars who played in the AFL before 2000. Francisco Rodriguez (2001), Pat Neshek (2003) and Utley (2004) are the other long-ago AFL veterans in the mix. An incredible 10 members of the National League bench will have an AFL pedigree on Tuesday night.